Take a whiff of Sista Smiff and you'll come back for more, that's fo sho!

Friday, December 30, 2005

"Mom, the year is almost over!" Those were the words of my 7 year old son just a few minutes ago. The kid is obsessed with calendars. Loves them. I'm not sure what the allure is for him in the pages. It's not the pictures, but, the actual days. He loves to mark them off. If a calendar comes within his sight, it's his. A cousin of mine from Hawaii sent me a lovely calendar, like she did last year and I used it in my office all year. Trevor found the 2006 calendar and I'm pretty sure I'll never see it again.

We were at the funeral home a couple weeks back for the visitation of a dear lady we used to go to church with. On a table in the foyer, they have their complimentary calendars. You'd have thought Trevor had found a $100 bill on the floor. "A CALENDAR!!!" Sometimes I wonder from whence this child has come from. He's an original, for sure.

I saw my new quarters today. Pleasantly surprised to see I have a window. (Windows are few and far between at Lifeway, even more so for peons such as myself). It's a cubicle, but, an office sort of cube, overlooking scenic 9th Avenue North, the North Wing and a smidgen of the visitor parking lot. Currently, I can gaze out my window and see the Southern Baptist Convention building and have a great earshot of sirens. Today, I saw a couple fighter jets fly over from the Music City Bowl, but, I digress...I was told that they had to relocate someone from this nice little office-ly type cube to somewhere else for me and that she was not happy. GREAT! Love that I've already pissed somebody off and I'm not even there yet. That's just FAB-ulous. I feel good about the move, however, the new boss certainly has a ton to live up to.

My boss that I've had for two years, David, is the ultimate in bosses. After all the crappy bosses I've had in my working career (geez, this year will be 20 years I've been in the workworld) David made up for it. I earned him. NB (New Boss) should be good, although I'm a little nervous about training a new one. Har har.

A memorial service was held at work today for a lovely young woman I did not know well, but, had worked with a little. Killed in a car accident on her way home for the holidays. Every parents nightmare come true right there. They played a beautiful tribute dvd that had been put together with a ton of photos and video of her and there were quite a lot of people there, for it to be a holiday week. That speaks volumes of her life right there. We should all leave such a mark.

Monday, December 26, 2005

The kids were quite pleased with what Santa brought. The older two are hip to the Santa thing but he surprised them with their own computers. The soon to be 14 year old is learning that once you get to be his age, you get more stuff you need than what you want. Welcome to being older! Trevor (7 year old) was thrilled with his new guitar. Strum strum strum. I'll be glad when he learns something on it and I'm hoping he doesn't mess with the tuning things and pop the strings off. He announced yesterday afternoon that this was "The best Christmas ever."

We did a lot of nothing all day yesterday. I took a couple naps and we ate Christmas dinner at the China Buffet. I finally watched all of "A Christmas Story" (yes, I know TBS ran it for 24 hours but I never got to see the whole thing) late on video. I found a little piece of trivia that I can't believe got by me....Peter Billingsley, who played "Ralphie" has a small role in another of my favorite Christmastime movies, "Elf"...he plays the supervisor elf. Now that I know that, of COURSE it's Ralphie.

I can't believe the "Nun Bun" has been stolen. On Christmas day, of all things!

We're doing Christmas with my mother and sister today. Sister and family live in Knoxville. They have a new puppy..Dixie, the cockapoo. Can't wait to meet her.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Christmas Eve....I guess this is my most favorite night of the year. Always has been. Everything just looks brighter on Christmas Eve...the lights on the tree, on my new lighted nativity snowglobe my boss gave me for Christmas...everything is twinkling and merry.

Some people though, Christmas this year is sad and they're missing precious people. Gosh, I can name a bunch of friends and family who will have somebody missing from their table this year....my mother, for one, lost her husband on January 6 of this year. My kids, who are 14 and 12, remember the first Christmas he was married to my mother and he called Santa Claus himself and Tyler and Tara, then 4 and 3 talked to him. Well, Tara was too scared to. Charles, who was something of an obsessive compulsive personality, would follow us all around after opening presents with a trash bag to collect the discarded wrapping paper.

The Gossett's, whom we spent many a Christmas Eve with, are missing Bill. I can remember their Christmas tree like it's only been a few days since I saw it. They always had a real tree and those big, old timey lights and a nativity scene underneath the tree. It can't be Christmas Eve without remembering them. Driving home from their house, I can remember always looking up in the sky for Santa.

The Kilgore's are missing Merle this year.....I think of Merle at Christmas because one Christmas, he made my parents breathe a lot easier, knowing there would be some income the year to come. Thank you, Merle.

My Louisiana family are missing their beloved mother, Pat who was my mother's sister. We used to make trips to Louisiana between Christmas and New Years and that's where we'd bring in the new year. One new year that stands out is when we crossed into 1980. That was also the New Year's Eve I slipped on a sleeping bag and nearly busted my noggin. I still have a bump over my left eyebrow as a reminder. Louisiana folks know how to bring in the new year, much more so than we do in Tennessee. Always, tons of fireworks and they are fond of bonfires down in Cajun Country. One year, firetrucks came, sirens clanging, lights flashing because they thought my aunt's house was on fire.

Carl Smith is missing Goldie this Christmas; Arvemia Wilburn is missing Leslie; lots of us missed getting Jimmy Martin's annual Christmas card showing many of the raccoons he killed during the year on various hunting expeditions; The Archer's, who are in my Sunday School class, are missing their son, Jason, who would've been 20 last week and lost a valiant battle with cancer this summer; Bob Johnson is missing Sarah, who just transitioned a week ago tomorrow.

We went to Christmas Eve services earlier this evening. Our wonderful pastor, Glenn Weekley, made his first return to the pulpit following a kidney transplant (his second one, this time the donor was his daughter). Gosh, it was good to see him. He looked a wee bit tired and you could tell that his emotions were high. My 7 year old, Trevor, sang "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" with the congregation at the top of his lungs and with a sincere heart, making his brother and sister giggle with embarassment, but, for me and his dad, it was a precious sight. Wish I'd have had the video camera. At the end of the service, following communion, we all sang "Silent Night", with lit candles. A few thousand people singing this beautiful carol, it was just breathtaking.

I've made our annual sausage balls, queso dip, haystack candy....the boys, including the biggest one, are gathered by the tv watching the Blue Collar Comedy Tour...A few months ago, we didn't think we'd have much Christmas due to less income, but, tonight, there are presents wrapped and under the tree...we're watching the Santa tracker on Norad and he's bringing some neat surprises; Terry has a Grammy nomination, and I start a new full time job the first week of January....all is calm, at least in my home.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Good Lord and Johnny Cash....I haven't posted anything here since April and here it is..December 17. So much for blogging.

So Christmas Eve is a mere week away, and I am nowhere close to being ready for it. Money's been on the tight side so this year it's going to be one of those years we learn the "Real Meaning of Christmas." There is one present under the tree at this moment, and usually by now there are tons of them. Earlier in my mothering career, I would have been more upset by that, but, I'm really not this year. Why? Last year, I busted my ass trying to make it all perfect for everybody. I shopped til I was blue in the face. Christmas morning, my daughter was disappointed she didn't get as big of a stereo/cd player that her brother got (never mind she got a buttload of presents) then to top it all off, my husband got me NOTHING. I mean, NOTHING. Christmas Eve at 5:30 pm, he says "Lets go get your present." So we go to Radio Shack and they were already closed.

Call me crazy, but, I felt like he could have made a little effort before then. We have a Target that is exactly ONE mile from our driveway and a Kohl's next door to that. So it's not like it would have been hard. After last year, I was so mad at the lack of gratitude on everyone's part, I said that this year everybody was getting one or two things. So, they are.

Gift giving has gotten out of hand anyway. It's the season to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to earth for the sole purpose of dying for our sins. It's not about draining your bank account and Mom's nerves being shot.